Biography

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart grew up in Salzburg under the regulation of his strict father Leopold who also was a famous composer of his time. His abilities in music were obvious even when Mozart was still young so that in 1762 at the age of six, his father took him with his elder sister on a concert tour to Munich and Vienna and a second one from 1763-66 through the south of Germany, Paris and London. Mozart was celebrated as a wonder child everywhere because of his excellent piano playing and his improvisations.

In 1769 he became the concertmaster of the Archbishop and was knighted by the Pope in Rome. Working in Salzburg he nevertheless travelled around Europe to meet other composers and orchestras. But in 1781 after a dispute with the Archbishop he left Salzburg and went to Vienna where he married Constanze Weber from Mannheim. In Vienna he also started his friendship with Joseph Haydn and a time of many work pieces. In the last year of his life, for example, he wrote one of his masterpieces, "Die Zauberflöte". Although some of his operas were successful he could not make money from this and died in poverty at the age of 35, having even on his last day worked on a "Requiem". He was buried in a communal grave which could not be precisely identified years later.
- IMDb mini biography by: Volker Boehm

Had a photographic memory, and could play an entire piece of music after hearing it only once.
Spoke 15 languages: German, French, Italian, Spanish, English, Turkish, Russian, Bohemian (Czech), Polish, Dutch, Latin, Ancient Greek, and Biblical Hebrew.
Could play the piano backward while lying on his back along the bench. He could also play the music itself backward from memory, as could Beethoven and Bach.
Described Constanze in a letter to his father: "She is not ugly, but at the same time, far from beautiful. Her entire beauty consists of two little black eyes and a nice figure. She isn't witty, but has enough common sense to enable her to fulfill her duties of wife and mother... she understands housekeeping and has the kindest heart in the world. I love her and she loves me."
In honor of Mozart's 250th birthday, all the church bells in Salzburg were rung simultaneously at the exact hour of his birth.

[on his prolific compositions] I write as a sow piddles.
As death, when we come to consider it closely, is the true goal of our existence, I have formed during the last few years such close relations with this best and truest friend of mankind, that his image is not only no longer terrifying to me, but is indeed very soothing and consoling! And I thank my God for graciously granting me the opportunity of learning that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness.
People are wrong who think my art comes easily to me. I assure you, nobody has devoted so much time and thought to composition as I.
Sweetheart, if I wrote you all the things I'm doing with your picture, you'd laugh.

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